Just watched it on HDNET.
Always awesome.

11 secs into launch, shuttle speed 1000+ miles per hour.

/ride the lightning, folks.

Saw it from my house (about 75 miles south). It was cloudy, but it's hard to miss that trail of fire. Very cool...now I can go back to bed.

Yes! TV screenshots!

I was just watching this in HD. It was awesome. The wide shot was great. It's a shame the clouds were so low.

Wow, with the pictures arranged in a sequential row like that on the page it makes one wish for some way to look at them without manually clicking on each. Some type of "motion photo." Yeah that's the ticket.


/Nice work random news station. Did you run the video of the launch on your computer and press print screen every couple of seconds?
//hates flash picture viewers as well

bilky: Wow, with the pictures arranged in a sequential row like that on the page it makes one wish for some way to look at them without manually clicking on each. Some type of "motion photo." Yeah that's the ticket.


/Nice work random news station. Did you run the video of the launch on your computer and press print screen every couple of seconds?
//hates flash picture viewers as well

No. I think they were watching it on their regular def TV, and took pictures with their mobile phone and uploaded them to their news site.

Last June I found myself in Florida in time for a launch. We gave ourselves 3 hours to get there from orlanda and still were stuck in traffic a good 50 miles out when it launched. Holy CRAP it was worth it, AND the 4 hours it took us to get back to the hotel. I hardly got but a few crap-ass pictures but the sight of it is fantastic.

Maybe it's because I am old enough to remember Mom waking us up to see the very first launch evar.

Clean the camera lens next time, fellas.

Did anybody else notice the other slideshow links on that page and find them as disturbing as I did?

Florida: the fark headline waiting to happen.

I went out to the beach to see it... didn't see shiat.

/Savannah
/good luck anyways, crew

bilky: //hates flash picture viewers as well

Me to. They don't seem to work in my browser. Whatever happened to <IMG> and <A HREF="...">?

i live in melbourne (same county as the cape, maybe like 45 minutes south) and it was pretty cloudy, but the clouds made it like, twice as cool because all the light from the shuttle made the entire sky glow like a sunrise. it was pretty awesome. and even though it was cloudy, i could still see it almost the entire time, and even could clearly see the boosters drop (which is impossible during the day)
i guess its good to live in the most boring city ever if you can see the gorgeous science for free in your own backyard :D

jayemem: Did anybody else notice the other slideshow links on that page and find them as disturbing as I did?

Florida: the fark headline waiting to happen.

yes, the 'nude young boy sex videos' story right below was quite well placed...

Dumb-Ass-Monkey: Elminst: Just watched it on HDNET.
Always awesome.

11 secs into launch, shuttle speed 1000+ miles per hour.

/ride the lightning, folks.

nobody else (it seems) saw this coverage!

Did you see the picture of Saturn taken from there?

Yes!
That was a frickin cool bonus. HD camera + telescope lens = win.

It was nice when we used to get NasaTV through cable... I wish I knew why Comcast had its head up its ass on that one... Network news coverage SUCKS... They don't even show the shuttle until maybe three minutes out, and they BLABBER over what's going on with useless crap... The CBS feed I was watching blabbered all the way over it, and they only showed the launch through the booster separation... ARGH.

I live in Orlando, and have a pretty good view from my house, but decided to drive out to Titusville to be close enough to feel the launch. Unfortunately, that's about all I got. I had the perfect vantage point accross the river, and had a great view of the pad. The first 500 feet or so were breathtaking, but then it popped into the cloud. I kept expecting to catch a glimpse of it again as it moved downrange, but no dice.

It's a shame, I only made the extra effort of driving out there because my dad was on duty in Launch control this morning.

/There's no crappy traffic like Titusville on a launch day.

Found out about the launch AFTER getting to Orlando for the weekend. Boo for having a return flight outta state hours before launch.

I should have my nerd card revoked! Their won't be very many more shuttle launches in the years ahead, from what I hear. :(

/I did check out a beach and state park nearby though during the day. Must have been an amazing sight!

I'm working nights here in Orlando and we went up on the roof of our 4 story building to watch. It looked extremely cool for about 5 seconds until it disappeared in the clouds. The pics from the "Sex Videos, Nude Photos Surface In Missing Boy Investigation" slide show are of Melinda Duckett. She's the young woman who killed herself one day after being grilled on live tv by Nancy Grace. She was apparently guilty. Sad story.

Better pics here (new window).

DON.MAC: I watched Apollo 17 launch at night and it turned the sky blue.
Somehow I don't think that shuttle would be as impressive.

Damn, I wish I had been around to see a Saturn V launch.

It's amazing when you tour Kennedy Space Center - the shuttle and all that stuff looks pretty damn big and impressive, and it is. But then you walk out into the building housing the Saturn V, and it puts it all in perspective. Holy crap.

Of course, I'm such a space nerd, I actually got choked up in the launch control room reenactment area... sheesh...

mattso: Found out about the launch AFTER getting to Orlando for the weekend. Boo for having a return flight outta state hours before launch.

I should have my nerd card revoked! Their won't be very many more shuttle launches in the years ahead, from what I hear. :(

Next one is scheduled for May 15th, at around 7:30pm, so a nice dusk launch. I think I'm going to try to make it.

The shot was a bummer for me. Overcast skys. Kind of hard to convince the mrs that night shots are awesome when you only get a peek of the launch.

If you ever get a chance (without cloud cover) to see a launch while on the beach, do so.

Shemp Mo-Din: Damn, I wish I had been around to see a Saturn V launch.

I did see a night launch of the Saturn V. I was very young. As soon as it was out of sight, I asked if they were on the moon yet. The answer was "No, not yet. Give it a couple of days."

/very fuzzy memories. not sure what mission it was.

Godspeed Endeavour.

Launches like these make me miss the eastern exposure my house had when I lived in Orlando. It used to be kind of cool to watch it lift off on TV and then be able to turn my head and look out the window in time to see it rise up over the trees in my backyard.


*sigh*

Pics? What pics? I went there and found some POS flash crap.

Anyone have a link to some real, hi-res photos of the launch?

Spayshull Endevurrrr

i am the infidel: I did see a night launch of the Saturn V... not sure what mission it was.

17. It was the only night launch of a lunar mission.

CannedTangent: Spayshull Endevurrrr

Which shuttle launched?

meatRocket: CannedTangent: Spayshull Endevurrrr

Which shuttle launched?

Endevurrrrr!

CannedTangent: meatRocket: CannedTangent: Spayshull Endevurrrr

Which shuttle launched?

Endevurrrrr!

LOL I came here to say the same thing.

ClemsonChili: CannedTangent: meatRocket: CannedTangent: Spayshull Endevurrrr

Which shuttle launched?

Endevurrrrr!

LOL I came here to say the same thing.

Ditto...

Endevurrrrrrrr!

Earguy: Quick story for you space nerds: I saw the first Apollo moon-landing launch at Cape Kennedy, and then my parents took me to Houston for the splash-down. And my dad took home movies of the Armstrong moon walk off TV.

I'm going to start a religion with your family at the heart of the pantheon. That is awesome.

/space nerd

Fun Fact about the launch: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7m4JuuTOUhY

Gonz: i am the infidel: I did see a night launch of the Saturn V... not sure what mission it was.

17. It was the only night launch of a lunar mission.

This is why I come to fark. Random nerd trivia. Thank you.

I once watched a night launch in 1991 from the deck of a cruise ship. Awesome.

God, I envy you guys who got to witness an Apollo launch. That thing packed a Very Serious Punch(tm, NASA). A shuttle launch is absolutely breathtaking. I was with Gene Krantz during the explosion of the Cape rocket (test rocket, no one aboard) and I can still get goosebumps when thinking about the utter volume of ka-blam behind that solid fuel motor.

Space is cool.

We still launch these things?

I thought we had mothballed the shuttle fleet.

Damn, learn something new everyday.

True story. I had no idea there was a launch today. Last night's dream was about my best friend having 'connections' with NASA and getting to go on a space flight... which was taking off from the Orlando airport instead of the Cape. Long story short; he missed his flight but it was okay because the shuttle blew up on landing.

Here's hoping that last part of the dream doesn't come true.

Another true story. My grandma lives in a condo that is across a very shallow body of water from Cape Canaveral. Many a trip to grandma's place as a kid were full of awesome.

High resolution picture direct from NASA: Link (new window)

Mom and Dad got to see this one from the VIP pavilion at Canaveral. They left a message on my work phone this morning (at 2:27 or whatever it was) with the sounds of liftoff and the roar of the engines, live on their cell phone. Guh. I am jealous. But it was really neat to hear.